Beginning in 2014, you will be able to determine if a health care provider you trust is actually on the drug industry's payroll, thanks to a new federal law that entails the following: · Drug and medical device companies will be required to report and disclose all payments (including stock options, research grants, knickknacks, consulting fees, travel expenses, vacations and more) to physicians. Unfortunately, payments to nurses, physician assistants, and other medical professionals will not have to be disclosed. · The information will be displayed in an online government database that you will be able to search. In the meantime, you can search ProPublica's database to see the disclosed payments made to physicians in your state. Many of the most prestigious universities, including Harvard, are now banning their staff from receiving money from drug companies for speaking, and this new disclosure requirement will hopefully push more institutions in that direction. Breaking the drug industry's stranglehold on the conventional medical industry will not be easy -- after all, the drug industry spends nearly twice as much on promotion9 as it does on research and development -- but the tide is beginning to turn. Increasing numbers of people are now waking up to these harsh realities. The ultimate goal is to have a critical mass of people refuse the unnecessarily dangerous and counterproductive solutions currently offered by conventional medicine, as this will be the powerful stimulus to generate authentic change. You can also act now, on a personal level, by making the necessary lifestyle changes that will allow you to take control of your health, instead of leaving it in the hands of the drug industry.Glaxo to Stop Paying Doctors for Drug Promotion Last month, Glaxo's chief executive Andrew Witty announced the company would no longer pay health care professionals to promote its products or the diseases they treat to "audiences who can prescribe or influence prescribing." Also set to be discontinued is the practice of paying for doctors to attend medical conferences (a practice that is already banned in the US but is still allowed in other countries). Glaxo also plans to stop compensating its sales representatives based on the number of prescriptions that doctors write, instead saying that they will base their pay on technical knowledge, quality of service they provide and other factors. This move was actually required as part of a corporate integrity agreement Glaxo made with the US Justice Department in 2011, but it only applies to the US. Glaxo now plans to extend the policy globally. The new plan, which is expected to take effect worldwide by 2016, is said to be the culmination of a yearlong effort "to try and make sure we stay in step with how the world is changing," according to Witty.2 But some believe it may simply be "a desperate attempt to deflect attention from recent scandals"3 that have plagued the drug giant… Glaxo Paid the Largest Health Fraud Settlement in US History In 2012, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plead guilty in the largest health fraud settlement in US history. The company was fined $3 billion to resolve criminal and civil liability charges related to illegal drug marketing and withholding information about health hazards associated with its diabetes drug Avandia and others, including Paxil and Wellbutrin. Written by Dr. Mercola